Matt Beaty Helps Amarillo Top Tulsa
Tulsa, OK – The Tulsa Drillers were hurt by a six-run fifth inning from the Amarillo Sod Poodles in a 9-2 loss on Friday night at ONEOK Field. Amarillo's big inning was aided by three walks, two wild pitches and a hit batter. The inning was also capped by a
Tulsa, OK – The Tulsa Drillers were hurt by a six-run fifth inning from the Amarillo Sod Poodles in a 9-2 loss on Friday night at ONEOK Field. Amarillo's big inning was aided by three walks, two wild pitches and a hit batter. The inning was also capped by a three-run homer from former Driller Matt Beaty in his fourth game back at ONEOK Field since the 2017 season when he was the Texas League Player of the Year.
The loss evened the six-game series at two games each and dropped the Drillers record at home to 19-20 and their second-half record to 2-2.
Tulsa surrendered the night's first run in the third inning when Amarillo’s Kevin Graham hit his third home run of the season.
Damon Keith responded for the Drillers in the bottom half of the third with an opposite-field, solo homer into the right-field bullpens.
Tulsa starting pitcher Jacob Meador made an unexpected exit after pitching three innings and throwing 41 pitches. Lefty Christian Suarez replaced Meador and worked a scoreless fourth.
Suarez returned for the fifth inning and the Sod Poodles took a 4-1 lead on three walks, two wild pitches and just one hit. Later in the inning, Beaty increased Amarillo’s lead to 7-1 with a three-run homer.
Taylor Young drove in the Drillers second run in the bottom of the fifth with a two-out single.
Amarillo added single runs in the both the eighth and ninth innings to close out the scoring.
INSIDE THE GAME
*Beaty's home run was his first at ONEOK Field since August 30, 2017.
*Keith's home run was his second of the season.
*Drillers pitching issued seven walks to bring the staff’s season total to 338, the most in the Texas League. Tulsa pitchers also struck out 12 batters, making it the 31st time this season that Tulsa pitchers have struck out ten or more batters in a game.
*All five hurlers used by Tulsa were charged with at least one run in the loss.
*Young drove in his 17th run in the month of June in the fifth inning. That RBI put him in a tie for the second most this month in the Texas League. Young is batting .233 for the month.
*Yeiner Fernandez reached base three times on two walks and a hit.
*Following Tulsa's fastest nine-inning game of the season last night at 2 hours and 4 minutes, Friday's contest took 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete.
UP NEXT:
The Drillers will continue their series with Amarillo with game five on Saturday night at ONEOK Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the starting pitchers are expected to be:
AMA – RHP Dylan Ray (0-1, 6.00 ERA)
TUL – RHP Orlando Ortiz-Mayr (3-4, 6.28 ERA)